The Monday Moneybeat

MEGAN BASHAM, HOST: Coming next on The World and Everything in It, the Monday Moneybeat.

BRADY: This is leverage, ah, to keep everyone at the table.

NICK EICHER, HOST: Congressman Kevin Brady, the top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee. He’s talking about President Trump’s new round of tariffs against imported goods to the United States from China.

Brady’s in favor, but only as a tool for negotiating.

BRADY: I think targeting these tariffs to a country like China, who’s been cheating for so long, ah, if that’s what keeps them at the table so we can get a fair agreement, then that’s necessary. But as you know, I’m not a fan of tariffs and so I think the sooner they’re lifted, the better.

The government began raising tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports on Friday. The tariff rate had been 10 percent. Now it’ll be 25 percent.

It’ll take months, though, before the tariffs take full effect.

Talks in Washington broke off on Friday without a trade deal.

China last week went back on numerous trade concessions it had already agreed to.

The primary dispute is over U.S. allegations that China steals technology, and pressures American companies into handing over trade secrets. It’s all part of Beijing’s aggressive campaign to turn Chinese companies into world leaders in robotics, electric cars, and other advanced industries.

The White House says the president expects to talk face-to-face with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Japan next month.

BASHAM: The announcement that trade talks will continue stopped a steep slide last week on Wall Street.

The hopeful sign sparked a small rally on all the major stock indexes.

It wasn’t enough, though, to overcome losses earlier in the week, driven by fears of a widening trade war between the two biggest economies in the world.

EICHER: So for the week: The Standard & Poor’s 500 gave up a whopping 2.2 percent.

Prior to this week, the S&P 500 had had only four losing weeks this year, most of them minor losses.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 2.1 percent.

For only the third time this year, the Nasdaq had a losing week, dropping 3 percent on the week. That’s the biggest decline since late December.

And the index of smaller-company stocks, the Russell 2000, lost 2.5 percent.

And that is today’s Monday Moneybeat.

(AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) In this March 11, 2019, file photo specialist Donald Himpele Jr. works at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. 

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